Some 6 million fries of Gymnocypris przewalskii, a kind of rare carp, or naked carp, found in the Qinghai Lake, were released Tuesday into a river that flows to the lake, the biggest saltwater body in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

The artificially-bred fries are intended to increase the number of naked carp in the lake, which have sharply declined due to over-fishing and environmental deterioration, said local conservationists.

Naked carp is a valuable, rare species living in the lake at an elevation of 3,195 meters above sea level, and it takes 10 years for a fry to grow into an adult fish weighing 0.5 kg on average.

To protect the species from extinction, the local government has banned fishing in the lake. A series of techniques have been developed for artificial reproduction of the fish, and last year 3.36 million fries were released into the lake together with some 2,000 adult fish.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2003)